Ontario Canada

Biography of W. Ladd

W. Ladd, of Redlands, first came to California in 1851. He shipped his horses and wagons from near Detroit, Michigan, to Chicago, and then to Missouri. April 9, 1851, they started from St. Joseph, Missouri, across the plains, and on August 11, of the same year, they arrived in Virginia City. Mr. Ladd mined until 1852, when he went back to Michigan by way of Panama. He worked at blacksmithing and the wagon-maker’s trade at Dearborn, Michigan, from 1852 until 1859, and on April 9, of the latter year, he again started from St. Joseph, Missouri, across the plains for … Read more

Biography of Lorenzo D. Raymond

Lorenzo Dulmage Raymond, Clerk of the Peace and County Attorney, is a native of the County of Leeds, Ontario, dating his birth September 28, 1811. The Raymonds are a New England family, originally English. His father, Truman Raymond, M. D., coming from Massachusetts in 1808, settling in the old Johnston district, acting as surgeon at Gananoque in the war of 1812-14; was Coroner of Lincoln and Welland when united; a pioneer in the temperance cause in the Niagara District, and a very excellent man, dying at Welland in 1861. The mother of Lorenzo was Elizabeth Dulmage, whose father was a … Read more

Biography of Hon. Henry Ruttan

The late Henry Ruttan was the son of a United Empire Loyalist, William Ruttan, who settled in Adolphustown, Upper Canada, about 1784, where Henry was born in 1792. He descended from a Huguenot family of Rochelle, France, the founder of the family being the Rev. Jean Baptiste Rotan, a prominent ecclesiastical writer and controversialist near the close of the sixteenth century. His grandfather emigrated to America in 1734, and settled with other Huguenot families at New Rochelle, Manchester county, New York. His father and uncle Peter Ruttan, were in the 3rd Battalion Jersey Volunteers, on the Royalist side; each had … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Thomas H. Noxon

Noxon Brothers Manufacturing Company, the most extensive industry in the manufacturing line at Ingersoll, is composed of five brothers, Freeman C., James, Samuel, Stephen, and Thomas H., sons of Samuel Noxon, senior, who was born and spent his days in the County of Prince Edward, Ontario, and grandson of James Noxon, a United Empire Loyalist from Duchess County, N. Y. The grandfather settled in Prince Edward at the close of the American Revolution. The mother of these five sons was Rhoda White. They received a business education in the public schools of their native county, James, the second son, adding … Read more

Biography of Dixie Watson

Dixie Watson, clerk of the Division Court, dates his birth in the township of Westminster, adjoining London, Out., November 14, 1842. His father, Dixie Watson, senior, was a barrister, one of the first members of the profession in Huron county, and a member of the first town council of Goderich, where he died in 1856. The mother of our subject was Charlotte Williams, daughter of Judge Rowland Williams, of the London District. She died in 1868. In 1845, the family moved to Goderich, where young Dixie received a grammar school education, and studied law with Mr. John Bell Gordon, purposing, … Read more

Biography of William Glass

William Glass, Sheriff of the County of Middlesex, descending, on the paternal side, from an old, well known family of the County of Armagh, Ireland, the old farm homestead being still owned and occupied by his cousin, Samuel Glass. In the year 1819, Samuel Glass, father of the Sheriff, at the age of 19 years, left his home to seek his fortune in Canada, having for his point of destination the township of Westminster, in the London District, where his sister, wife of the the late Lieut, Colonel Orr, had settled two years previously. Crossing the Atlantic he made acquaintance … Read more

Biography of Henry Carlisle

Henry Carlisle, Mayor of the City of St. Catharines, and a resident of the Niagara district since 1837, dates his birth at Whitby, Yorkshire, England, May 9, 1820. His father, George Carlisle, a pianoforte manufacturer, and his mother, whose maiden name was Ann Walker, were natives of the same county. His mother is still living, being in her 80th year; her residence, Montreal. His father died in 1856 at Stamford. Our subject was educated at a private school; worked a short time at the tailor trade in the old country; in 1837 came to Upper Canada; spent a short time … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Hon. John W. Gwynne

John Wellington Gwynne, who was recently appointed one of the puisne Judges of the Supreme Court of the Dominion, is a native of Ireland, and was born in 1817, being a son of the Rev. Dr. Gwynne, minister of the Church of England, of Castle Knock, Dublin. Judge Gwynne came to Canada in 1832, the year that the cholera first visited this continent; subsequently returned to his native country, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He read law with Thomas Kirkpatrick, barrister, of Kingston, and was called to the Bar, Trinity term, in 1837. He was elected a Bencher … Read more

Biography of Thomas Brown

Among the early settlers and energetic, persevering business men of Ingersoll, is Thomas Brown, who has here been a leather manufacturer for nearly forty-seven years. He hails from the old Bay State which, New York perhaps excepted, has sent out more enterprising mechanics, manufacturers, tradesmen and professional men, than any other commonwealth in the great American Union. He was born in the town of Seekonk, Bristol county, December 11, 1810, being the son of Oliver Brown, who was born in the same town, and who, enlisting when a mere lad, served for five years in the war for independence. Thomas … Read more

Dixon, Ida Cornwall – Obituary

Mrs. Ida Dixon, wife of John Dixon, deceased, died last night at the emergency hospital of pneumonia after a lingering illness died October 26, 1918 Mrs. Dixon was born in Ontario, Canada, November 3, 1871, where she lived until she was brought to this city by her parents. She was married to John Dixon in December 1891, who died about a year ago She is survived by two children, Myrtle Dixon, who is very ill at present, and Archie Dixon and her father, H. D. Cornwall, all of Ellensburg The Women’s Relief Corps, of which she was a member, were … Read more

Biography of Levi Young

One of the pioneers in the forests of the Ottawa valley, and one of the conquerors of the cataracts of the Ottawa river, is Levi Young, who, though past his three score years, is still active in life, and may yet serve as a pall bearer to the nineteenth century, whose birth was only five years ahead of his. He was born September 5, 1805, at Wiscassett, Maine, a State noted for its liberal growth of lumbermen. His parents were Levi and Rachel (White) Young, whose wealth was dug out of the earth in the Pine Tree Commonwealth. Joshua Young, … Read more

Biography of James Gillespie

James Gillespie, second son of James and Jane (Montgomery) Gillespie was born in James Ontario, January 6, 1824. Both parents were from Belfast, Ireland. His father was a baker by trade, and often changed his residence, living at different places in this Province and in the State of New York, settling in Picton in 1831, where James obtained such mental discipline, as the local schools of that period furnished. He worked with his father until fifteen years old; then learned the trade of a cabinet maker, and followed that business for himself until 1860, when he became a grocer and … Read more

Biography of Patrick Whelihan

Patrick Whelihan, Registrar of the South Riding of the County of Perth, was born in the County of Tipperary, Ireland, April 23, 1832. His father, James Whelihan, a farmer and land agent, died when the son was two years old, leaving the widowed mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth D’Arcy, with a family of eleven children, of whom he was the tenth child. He was brought up on a farm until sixteen years old, receiving, meanwhile, a national school education. In 1848 the family came to America, landing at New Orleans, La., where the mother and an older brother caught … Read more

Biography of John G. Stevenson

John Gustavus Stevenson, Judge of the County of Haldimand, was born in the Township of Niagara, County of Lincoln, June 1, 1818, being a son of John A. Stevenson, a native of Dublin, and an officer of the 99th Foot, dying at “Oakwood,” Niagara, in 1832. The mother of our subject was Mary Allison, daughter of Rev. Robert Addison, who was established at Niagara in 1792, being a pioneer in his profession in Upper Canada. Judge Stevenson was educated chiefly at Upper Canada College, Toronto; studied law with Judge Campbell, of Niagara; was called to the Bar at Trinity term, … Read more

Biography of Lieut.Col. John Stoughton Dennis

Lieut: Colonel John Stoughton Dennis, Deputy Minister of the Interior, was born at Kingston, Ontario, in 1820. He is the eldest son of Joseph Dennis and Mary Stoughton, his wife, and grandson of John Dennis, a United Empire Loyalist, who, living in Philadelphia at the time of the American rebellion, cast: his fortunes in with the Crown. At the close of the war, Mr. Dennis, with other expatriated Loyalists, settled in Shelburne, N. S., whence he moved to Beaver Harbour, N. B., and finally, in 1792, settled in Upper Canada on a tract of land given him by the Government … Read more

Ottawa Tribe

Ottawa Indians, Ottawa First Nation, Ottawa Nation, Ottawa People (from ǎdāwe, ‘to trade’, `to buy and sell,’ a term common to the Cree, Algonkin, Nipissing, Montagnais, Ottawa, and Chippewa, and applied to the Ottawa because in early traditional times and also during the historic period they were noted among their neighbors as intertribal traders and barterers, dealing chiefly in cornmeal, sunflower oil, furs and skins, rugs or mats, tobacco, and medicinal roots and herbs). Ottawa Tribe History On French river, near its mouth, on Georgian bay, Champlain in 1615 met 300 men of a tribe which, he said, “we call … Read more

Biography of William Bannerman, M.P.

The subject of this notice, the member of Parliament for South Renfrew, is of full Scotch blood on both sides of the family, being a son of Thomas and Barbara (McCoy) Bannerman, and born in the parish of Kildonan, Sutherlandshire, Scotland, on the 5th of November, 1841. His father was a seafaring man, and after the son had received a fair drill in a parish school, he served an apprenticeship at the same business. Not caring to continue this precarious aquatic life any longer, in the autumn of 1857, our subject came to Canada West, and for seven years was … Read more

Biography of Thomas S. Shenston

Thomas S. Shenston, registrar of the county of Brant, and son of Benjamin and Mary (Strahan) Shenston, was born in London, England, June 25,1822. Two uncles on his father’s side were clergymen: Rev. William Shenston, twenty-five years pastor of a Baptist church at Little Aile St., Whitechapel Road, London, and Rev. John B. Shenston, a Sabbatarian Baptist, Shoreditch, London. His maternal grandfather was a Congregational minister. This branch of the Shenston family is remotely related to the poet Shenstone. When our subject was about nine years of age, the family emigrated to Upper Canada, and after halting one year near … Read more

Biographical Sketch of David S. Bowlby, M.D.

David Sovereign Bowlby, the leading physician and surgeon in Berlin, is a son of Adam Bowlby, whose sketch appears in this volume, and Elizabeth, nee Sovereign, and was born in Townsend, county of Norfolk; September 5, 1826. He received his literary education in Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto; studied his profession at first in the Toronto School of Medicine, and then in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York city, receiving the degree of M.D. at the former institution in 1852, and at the latter in 1853. He is one of the most thoroughly educated … Read more

Biography of John Winery

Few men are as conversant with the rise and growth of the city of Hamilton, during the last half century, as the subject of this notice. For fifty years he has been in business here, and of all the astonishing changes which have taken place in that time he has been an interested witness, and has contributed his share to make the city what it is. When he first came here, most of the land on which the city is built, was farming property. There were but two stores and one tavern, and very little business for even them to … Read more